Baking soda is a fast and effective way to kill roaches. When a roach ingests baking soda, the baking soda expands inside them, causing the roach to explode. Simply sprinkle baking soda on food, such as an onion, and leave it near where you've seen roaches overnight.
For homemade cockroach control, you can make a simple bait using boric acid, sugar, and water. Mix equal parts of boric acid and sugar, then add a bit of water to form a paste. Place this mixture in small containers or on pieces of cardboard and put them in areas where you have seen roaches.
When roaches eat baking soda, it reacts with water and acid in their stomachs, creating carbon dioxide gas. The gas builds up pressure and eventually kills the roach when its body can't handle it. It can take 12--24 hours for the roach to die after consuming the baking soda.
Ethanol Directly Kills Cockroaches
While white vinegar won't kill those pesky insects, ethanol—also known as common alcohol—will kill cockroaches. Cockroaches are particularly sensitive to ethanol and a direct hit from it will take them down.
The Best Ways to Repel Roaches Naturally
Baking soda: Coat a piece of food in the soda and leave it out overnight. Diatomaceous earth: Scatter a few spoonfuls anywhere you notice roach activity. Peppermint oil: Dilute 5-10 drops in a water-filled spray bottle and spritz around your home.
Boric acid surpasses even baking soda at killing cockroaches instantly. Boric acid performs as an all-natural toxin that kills unclean roaches in just a few days with a couple of sprinkles on the floor. Put another way, dust a paper plate with flour and bait it with a piece of orange peel in the center.
Citrus is one of the scents cockroaches are most known to hate, notably lemon and orange. Keeping a dish of lemon juice on your kitchen counter can deter these pests, as well as placing lemon peels around the home to discourage cockroaches from coming out of hiding.
The best roach killer, based on our research, is the advion 383920 Cockroach Gel Bait; a commercial-grade roach killer set that is easy to use and lasts months after application. It can kill all sorts of cockroaches, including the American and German variety, and it's even safe to use if you have pets or kids.
Some strong scents, such as lavender and mint, have been known to repel cockroaches.
Boric acid: Used correctly, boric acid is one of the most effective roach killers. It's odorless, has low toxicity to pets, and since it isn't repellent to roaches, they will not seek to avoid it, crawling through it repeatedly until it kills them.
However, you should always remember that vinegar only repels roaches. It does not kill them. It is more of a cleaning tool than eliminating pests. It can only help deter roaches for a short period before finding a better method of eliminating them.
Spread of Eggs
The number one reason to not squash a cockroach is to prevent spreading cockroach eggs. Some cockroach species, such as the German cockroach (common species here in the UK) carry their egg cases (ootheca) on their body until just before they hatch.
Baking soda is a fast and effective way to kill roaches. When a roach ingests baking soda, the baking soda expands inside them, causing the roach to explode. Simply sprinkle baking soda on food, such as an onion, and leave it near where you've seen roaches overnight.
Boric acid's effectiveness can diminish over time, requiring periodic reapplication. Dust and debris can cover the powder, making it less effective. To keep boric acid effective against roach infestations, follow these steps: Monitor treated areas every few weeks.
Boric acid is a stomach poison that is picked up by cockroaches walking across dusted areas. The boric acid adheres to the cockroach cuticle so when the cockroach grooms itself it ingests the boric acid and soon dies.
Cockroaches are blessed with an amazing sense of smell. This is what they use when seeking food and mate but at the same time, this is also their weakness. A cockroach's sense of smell can be used to get rid of them.
There's a long-running joke that cockroaches could survive the apocalypse, as getting rid of unwanted roaches is difficult if you have an infestation. But if you want to kill them on contact, all you need to do is reach for your handy bottle of Pine-Sol! Considered a "contact insecticide," it kills them quickly.
Rosemary is considered one of the best roach repellents because it's actually highly toxic to the insects. Even better, this plant can be found at your local nursery, hardware store, or plant shop and requires little water. Just make sure you place it in direct sunlight.
Many insect foggers contain pyrethrin as an active ingredient. While pyrethrins are somewhat effective against exposed flying insects such as house flies, they are seldom lethal to roaches, ants, bed bugs, spiders, silverfish, and other crawling pests.
What causes roaches in houses and apartments? What attracts roaches to a clean house primarily consists of their basic needs: food, water, and shelter, although they are usually brought into houses and apartments on other items, such as luggage or clothing.
Insects and Arachnids
Strangely enough, one of the most prevalent kind of predator that cockroaches face are fellow insects! The emerald cockroach wasp, Ampulex compressa, for example, has an unusual way of preying upon cockroaches. The wasp stings the cockroach's brain, which paralyzes the cockroach.
Leaving the light on doesn't deter cockroaches effectively because they can navigate in low-light conditions. While they're mostly active at night, they may still come out in search of food or water. During the day, cockroaches hide in dark areas not directly exposed to light.
Strong Odors
An unsealed bowl of sugar or open box of sweet cereal can also seduce their senses. Nice smells aren't the only ones they love. The smell of garbage, a compost pile or dirty laundry whets their appetites. They find collections of grocery bags and empty boxes with the faint smell of food delicious.